The 5^th edition of Voice of Art, Nirmal Bhartia School’s pioneering arts-based inter-school biennial challenge, was held from 16^th to 18^th July 2026 at Bikaner House, New Delhi.

Voice of Art is a practice-based research challenge that encourages children to use the inherent freedom and plurality of arts-based approaches to develop their own original lens and become imaginative and sensitive co-creators of their worlds.

The VoA 2026 theme, उलझते सुलझते, Together We Change, was inspired by the well-known game of strings, Cat’s Cradle, also a metaphor for tracing the evolution of interconnected thoughts. The challenge asked students to weave their own conceptions of change through the medium of visual art.

A bunch of thoughtful and creative students from 15 schools across India responded with imagination imbued with the magic of art. In their collective imagination built through threads of interconnected thoughts, familiar forms- threads, knots, stories, and narratives- became represented in entirely novel ways.

Here are a few snippets from the exhibition and workshops of VOA 2026. The workshops and panel discussions were led by eminent thought leaders from art: Samar Jodha, Lakshmi Madhavan, Annapurna Garimella, Sara Vetteth, Rashmi Kaleka, Pratyush Gupta, Umesh Singh, Shefalee Jain, Shivi Bhatnagar, Tetiana Sharma, Sriparna Dutta, Pranshu Chatur Lal, and the pupper art group PuppetShala.

The event was curated by Kriti Sood, Ankita Parihar, and Vaibhav Achantani from @land_art_education. NiBS student curatorial team assisted in this effort.